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A&S in the News: May 6–30, 2017

Posted on: May 31st, 2017

Alabama student selected to prestigious Student Congress

The Crimson White — May 30

The Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship chooses 50 students annually to participate in a National Student Congress focused on promoting the characteristics the famous Kentucky statesman once held dear while also discussing the problems of today. This year, The University of Alabama’s own Kaitlyn Krejci will be representing the state of Alabama at the National Student Congress. The Student Congress will give student representatives a chance to garner practical experience before transitioning into the real world, as some representatives will go on to intern on Capitol Hill, work for law firms or participate in political campaigns. Krejci, a St. Louis native and junior majoring in political science, will help formulate public policy and work with other members of the mock legislative body.

Poet and University of Alabama professor L. Lamar Wilson, who grew up in Marianna, presents his show “Sacreligion: The Gospel Truth” at 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday as part of the Mickee Faust Club’s 10th Annual Queer As Faust Festival at the Mickee Faust Clubhouse in Railroad Square Art Park. Tickets are $15 general public; $10 students and seniors. Visit www.mickeefaust.com.

John Abbott, director of museum research and collections at The University of Alabama, said the four most common ticks in Alabama are the lone star tick, the deer or black-legged tick, the Gulf Coast tick, and the American dog tick. In a paper published by the university, he said the deer tick is most likely to carry Lyme disease and Powassan virus.

Evidence suggests that ventilation holes in the filters of these cigarettes contribute to increased lung adenocarcinoma rates and risks, according to a study published Monday in Journal of the National Cancer Institute…. Dr. Alan Blum, director of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society and a professor in the Department of Family Medicine at The University of Alabama’s School of Medicine, believes the new study is a non-starter. … Instead, he says, money should be spent directly on spreading the word to consumers about the evils of smoking — and, in this case, smoking “light” or filtered.

A single dinosaur tooth is helping paleontologists better understand what North America looked like right before non-avian dinosaurs went extinct. Lynn Harrell of The University of Alabama’s Geological Sciences Department had suspicions that a fossil discovered by George Phillips, who is the paleontology curator at the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks’ Museum of Natural Science posted on Facebook, was of the hefty horned dinosaur.Special radar to be built at University of Alabama

Ledger Enquirer — May 22

An international team of researchers is studying the North-East Greenland Ice Stream to find out how much glaciers and ice sheets will influence rising seas. Engineering researchers Professors Stephen Yan and Prasad Gogineni, at The University of Alabama will develop a radar that should provide an accurate image of what occurs at the base of the ice. The radar will the first of its kind, advancing the use of a type of radar known as ultra-wide band surface-based radar for scanning the interior of ice. This is the first project for the newly-established UA Remote Sensing Center, which plans to develop technologies that enable high-resolution measurements of soil moisture, snow and ice. The result should mean a radar 100 times more sensitive than the current state-of-the-art radar used to image glaciers, Yan said.

Justin Smith, a junior at The University of Alabama minoring in history, will be interning with the Selma Times-Journal Newsroom this summer. Smith will contribute daily to The Selma Times-Journal print and digital products as well as special sections and Selma The Magazine.

“I am grateful as well as excited to work with the Selma Times-Journal. I see it as a great opportunity to improve on my journalistic writing skills and gain connections,” Smith said.

Burmese pythons may be the best way to study diabetes, heart disease and the protective effects of gastric-bypass surgery in humans. University of Alabama Biologist Dr. Stephen Secor’s work has been unadulterated by the need for real-world applications. People rarely bothered him with plans to plumb the python as a source of pharmaceuticals or as a means to better human health. “I don’t care about the medical aspects,” he says he might have told them at the time. “That’s not what I do. I just love these animals because I’m interested in their biology.”

A study by The University of Alabama has discovered a link between people sporting tattoos and a higher concentration of immunoglobin-A, your body’s vanguard against infection. In the study, those with multiple etchings also showed lower amounts of immune system-suppressing cortisol, perhaps explaining why David Beckham is always in such fine fettle.

Retired history professor Larry Clayton, explores the shift in American society from viewing leisure as a status symbol to now seeing busyness as more of a symbol of success. “Americans tend to perceive busy and overworked as having high status. Researchers found that old status symbols like luxury cars or handbags seem to make people less likeable. “Busyness” may be a potentially more socially acceptable and efficient way for people to signal their social status.”

Political science major Larry Cummings graduated from The University of Alabama at 75. Cummings had one more course to take to graduate and with the support of his daughter, journalism professor Meredith Cummings, he graduated this year. “The campus politics just got to be something fascinating to be involved with,” he said. “If I had to do it over again I would ignore all of it and be a better student. When you get older you enjoy learning more. It was hard to sit in Paty and study when there was always somewhere to go or something to do.”